Staff Augmentation is a type of outsourcing where you contract out employees to either help create or boost your current team. It involves two companies agreeing which company will provide the services needed. It is becoming more and more popular, not just in the accounting and finance world, but marketing, IT, and more.
Within an accounting and finance industry, CFOs, Controllers, and accountants are brought in to help grow or build the existing team of accountants, whether it is keeping them up to date on systems and processes or a specific skill is needed. Once your needs of the projects are determined, a solution will be established. Staff Augmentation is a great way to allot resources to other areas or departments in the company while still maintaining success, growth and getting the job done.
NOW CFO works on an hourly basis, making it easy to vet out a professional on an as needs basis. Staff augmentation can save a company a significant amount of time and money on training and onboarding costs compared to a conventional new hire.
Benefits of Outsourced Staff Augmentation
- Scalability- A company will have moments of growth, and moments of slow down or steadiness. Staff augmentation allows you to scale up or down as needed, and downsize if needed once a project is completed.
- Cost Saving– By bringing in specialists to train the current team, you eliminate the cost of hiring new individuals that include prices of training and onboarding, employee benefits, taxes, full-time salaries and more.
- Control- Both large and small companies do not want to give up control of what is in happening within a project. With Staff augmentation, it provides the project with certified specialists and still allows management to keep control of what is happening.
- Hire specialized talent – There is no geographical limit when it comes to staff augmentation since the position can be remote or pulled in from another location, which opens the door to a much larger hiring pool and the ability to find specific roles for your needs, such as a SEC Reporting Manager.
- Outside perspective- Staff augmentation gives a fresh set of eyes with different ideas and opinions on projects. This can lead to support and success of a project that may not have happened with the current staff if they have not learned new and improved systems, procedures and so on.
Types of Staff Augmentation
Employees are hired on a contract basis, but the duration and goals of each may be different:
- Short-term cooperation: When there is a specific project or deadline that is approaching, and extra help is needed.
- Long-term cooperation: When the project is complicated and there are not enough people to cover the tasks, or if the company finds that the outsourced hire is a great fit and it then can become a placement.
Why is Staff Augmentation in Demand?
- According to statistics, one-third of all staff in the world is represented by external specialists. Ever since Kelly Services began renting highly qualified specialists in 1946, the idea of expanding the team has gradually developed.
- “According to the 2020 Global Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Industry Report, the market is projected to reach $51.5 billion by 2027, growing by $16.7 billion driven by a compound growth of 5.8%.”
Besides the statistics, the obvious reason why outsourced staff augmentation is in demand is the cost and time savings that come with it. The usual recruitment process according to Glassdoor takes 23+ days. That is a lot of time to be wasting when you could bring in a specialist to train the current team. There is always a risk of losing specialists on a team at the worst possible time, and you can avoid this problem with staff augmentation.
We guarantee that we can add people to an engagement without very much lead power in a timely manner. This can be very compelling and even necessary for a company with a tight deadline, or one that is publicly traded. We recognize the need to keep employees skilled and knowledgeable and to find the right candidate for company if they do not have the time or resources to do it themselves.
